


I Told You So

by rebelmeg



Series: After the Ashes [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AIW Spoilers, But he does say something nasty, Clint is kind of a dick, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Mentions of Major Character Death, No death occurs "on screen", Not meant as Clint hate, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Ross is a huge dick, Spoilers, Steve POV, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony and Nebula: Dark Humor Buddies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 14:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14571294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR!!!Half the world's population has dissolved into ash, and what's left of the Avengers are left behind to pick up the pieces.  Then Tony arrives, in an alien ship and with an alien by his side.  Words are thrown around, and not the friendly kind.  He knew, all this time, but no one listened.  And now they've all paid a price that they can't afford.





	I Told You So

**Author's Note:**

> CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR!!!
> 
> I have Clint as the "bad guy", so to speak, he does say something nasty, but I don't intend it to be hateful towards Clint. We don't know what happened to his family, but it's not a stretch to assume that at least one of them went poof, and that would leave him in a seriously bad state. Not to say that he has a good excuse for shooting his mouth off like that (just like he didn't in CACW), but I don't meant this as a "Clint is bad" way. Just that Clint got picked as the one to say the words, because I found it the most in character. (Waiting for you to redeem him, Marvel. Waiting on you.)
> 
> Oh, btw, if I need to add tags, or you spot a typo, or any sentences just don't read right, please let me know!

Steve could feel a migraine forming as Secretary Ross made another pointed comment and sent a glance his direction, using his position as the “head” of this little war council to make sure the blame for everything that had happened in the past few days landed squarely on Steve, Clint, and Natasha. Even Rhodes, actually, he’d been getting some side-eye too (Steve kind of hated that Natasha had taught him that term, now it was all he could think of).

“Colonel Rhodes, you’re not gonna believe this.”

The Irish-accented AI, which had been all but silent since Steve and the rest of them had arrived at the compound, made several of them jump as she interrupted Ross mid-sentence. Rhodes looked up even though there was nothing to see, a habit most of them had when addressing the AI, completely ignoring the perturbed Ross. “Yeah, Friday?”

“Boss is back. He just cleared atmo in an alien spacecraft and he’s thirty seconds from landing. He says he’ll come to you.”

Rhodey shot to his feet (an impressive feat, and Steve couldn’t help but look at those braces he wore again, admiring the tech), but before he could do anything else, Secretary Ross stepped forward and opened his damn mouth again.

“An alien spacecraft? Are we sure we shouldn’t be shooting that thing out of the sky?”

Steve leveled a glare at the man, and was just getting ready to lose his temper when Rhodey beat him to it.

“My best friend, who is coincidentally this world’s best bet at surviving the crisis we’re in right now, has just come home after being missing for three days. You so much as raise a hand to him and and I’ll break off every single finger you have myself.”

Steve smiled, and didn’t bother to hide it, noticing that Natasha likewise had a smirk on her face too. Ross was glaring, a cold expression as he ground his teeth.

Rhodey kept up a stream of chatter with Friday as they all waited, exchanging glances with each other as they watched Rhodey, watched the door, watched each other. It seemed like much longer than thirty seconds, an eternity, before Steve’s advanced hearing picked up the sound of footsteps approaching.

Everyone’s heads turned to the doors when they automatically swished open, and Steve felt all the breath leave his lungs.

_Tony._

If anyone, _anyone_ , had a chance of fixing this, it was him.

Steve was up out of his chair before he could think about it, as were half of the others, but they all faltered to a stop at the same time.

Something was… wrong.

Something was very wrong.

And it wasn’t the creepy blue alien woman behind Tony that stared at them all with black-eyed distrust.

It was Tony himself. But it wasn’t the torn and blood-stained clothes or the bruised face, they had all seen that before. It was the disturbing version of his “press face” that he had pasted on, a variation of the face he always had on around the public. This one was just… there was something so _off_ about it, about the way Tony was holding his face, his whole body.

Steve opened his mouth, about to say… something, anything, he was willing to fly by the seat of his pants with this, but someone else beat him to it. And Steve had never wanted to punch one of his teammates more.

Clint’s voice was bitter, caustic, every nuance in his voice full of pain and screaming for a fight, all of his anger and anguish about the events of the past few days spilling out and flying at Tony like knives. “Alright, Stark, why don’t you say it? Go ahead and say it now, get it over with. _I told you so_. Go ahead. Say it. We’ll wait.”

Steve opened his mouth to rebuke the guy, to rein him back in despite his understandable pain, but Natasha had already yanked Clint around and was whispering at him harshly in Russian, her grip on his arm tight. Steve’s eyes found their way back to Tony again, stuttering a little on the blue woman behind him, but coming to rest on the man he hadn’t seen in over two years.

Tony was looking at Clint, but he made no move to speak. In fact, his entire body was unnaturally still. Almost like death.

“Tony,” Bruce suddenly said quietly, glancing at the blue alien behind Tony and obviously looking for more people. “Where’s… where’s Dr. Strange? Where’s the kid?” He sounded like he didn’t want to hear the answer, like he knew it was more bad news after three days of nothing but the same.

As Steve looked from Bruce back to Tony again, also waiting for the answer, he watched as the press face finally fell away. And in its place was the most awful, blank expression, and the most dead pair of eyes Steve had ever seen.

Those matte eyes traveled across all of their faces, and Steve even heard Natasha’s quick intake of breath at the shocking emptiness in that normally sparkling gaze.

Tony’s voice was slightly hoarse when he spoke, and it cracked at the end as he said in a flat voice, to no one in particular, “I told you so.”

A taste, just a little bit of one, of the pain and fear and frustration Tony had been dealing with for the past six years, hit Steve right in the center of his chest (it brought some unpleasant imagery with it, too, the sensation of driving his shield downward into metal armor).

The blue alien had moved forward, just a little bit, until her shoulder was brushing Tony's. His head dropped, and shudder ran through him, but just as Steve was about to speak again his head came back up.

The press face was back. Grim, serious, but controlled, all hint of emotion locked away. Tony’s voice was as flat as his eyes as he looked at Rhodey and then at Steve before posing the question. “So, where are we?”


End file.
